Chapter 3
On the next morning, Ron was the first to wake up. Normally he was the last one, it was only around 6AM and he could watch the sun rising. He got up slowly and left his room. Without going into the bathroom, he went straight to the kitchen. Who needed to brush their teeth if they were hungry? And Ron was always very hungry in the morning.
He entered the kitchen and looked out of the window. Preparing food was exhausting. He was lazy.
Ron sat on his usual place and wanted to fall asleep again on the table when he saw something white on the brown wood. What was that? The owl shouldn't have been there already. He stretched his arm and held the letters in front of his face. He needed about twice as long as normally until he realized what they said.
To Mom, Dad, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Ron and Ginny and To Mom, Dad, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Ron, Ginny and Fleur.
The handwriting was the same, or if it wasn't the same it was at least very similar. Ron hesitated, but then he opened the first one – the one without 'Fleur' – since it was addressed to him, too.
His eyes flew over the lines without really reading them and stopped at the end of the letter. Then he jumped up and ran to the stairs.
"MOM, DAD, COME HERE! THERE'S A LETTER FROM FRED IN THE KITCHEN!", he screamed on the top of his lungs and then ran back to the table. Before he could start reading it, his mom came and ripped it out of his hands. She wore a white night robe and held the paper with shaking hands, his dad followed shortly after, wearing a morning robe over his pyjamas.
"There's another one..", Ron whispered and handed him to his father. While he opened it, hands shaking not as much as his mother's, Ginny and Percy came downstairs. Both looked at the letters with wide eyes and then stared at Ron.
"I don't know what they say, I didn't read them yet!", he explained. He was nervous and couldn't stand still while he watched his mother's eyes widen and fill with tears. Then his father cried out and ran to the stairs, climbing them as fast as he could. Ron turned to her mother who released the letter and ran after her husband.
Only some seconds later the three siblings could hear her screaming. First they didn't understand what it meant, but then they looked at each other at the same time and ran upstairs, too. Their mother had screamed George's name, there was no mistaking it.
They made it up to the twins' room, but their father was standing in the doorframe, not letting them look inside or enter.
"Floo Bill and take him here, tell him to bring Charlie, too. Go together and don't read those letters until your mother and I finished them. Go now!", he told them hurriedly. He looked sickly pale and sweaty. Percy, Ron and Ginny didn't feel like complaining, so they ran back downstairs to go fetch their brothers.
At the same time Molly sat at her son's side, her arms hugging him recklessly and she seemed to cry hysterically. "George, darling.. Wake up, please! You can't leave now, not now, not you, too.. Please just wake up and tell me that this is a joke.. Georgie, George!", she whispered.
Arthur, now sure that his younger children wouldn't get into their brothers' room, sat beside her and put his arms around her. His eyes filled with tears as he looked at his son's sleeping body. He was cuddled up in the blanket, eyes closed. This was how they had always found their twins when they came to wake them up. This was how Fred and George always slept. How could he do this to them? How could he leave his family to mourn about him, after they had just lost another son? How could he do this to his mother?
Molly began stroking George's hair with shaking hands, feeling his face like she used to do when he was a baby. She kissed his forehead, although he never liked that.
Arthur looked at them and covered his eyes with his hands. No. This wasn't true. This war couldn't have cost another life, another innocent soul and another one of his children. Of his little, happy kids. The war had already destroyed his family, he didn't see someone break a vase while playing or hurt their knees while running up the stairs or laughing for months. How could the war get through to his children? He should've protected them better.
Just as he took his hands from his eyes he could hear footsteps running up the stairs. He didn't have the strength to stop them from entering the room. He could hear his daughters cry when she saw her mom leaning over George and a second later his oldest son sat by his side, looking at his brother with a blank expression.
Ginny ran out of the room without another glance at George.
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Here I am again with a new chapter, a very short one but I'll post the next one tomorrow or the day after tomorrow because they belong together.
A big, big THANK YOU to Magicgirl29, Strawberry-Green-Girl, mermaidgirl45 and teamalice4ever for your reviews.
Again, I tried to find all the typos and mistakes. If you see some more, please tell me so I can correct them. Thanks!